After the fall of Huaibei and Huainan one after another, Chen Hongyi led the remaining 30,000 horses to retreat to Nanyang first, preparing to march east to King Qin.

Chen Hongyi sent a letter to Wang Guan, who was guarding Jiangling, and made an appointment to go in on the eighth day of the winter month to relieve the siege of Jinling.

Wang Guan replied very simply at first, threatening to lead a total of 80,000 people by land and water, and Ma Dong marched into the king to quell the rebellion.

On the third day of the first month of winter, Wang Guan's envoy came to Chen Hongyi's army, saying that the warships of the Jingzhou Navy were very damaged and that it would take three months to repair the warships, and asked Chen Hongyi to lead the army east to the king of Qin. Chen Hongyi knew that Wang Guan wanted to reap the benefits of the fisherman, so he quietly deduced that the two khanates in the north might attack the south at any time to attack the line from Xiangyang to Nanyang, and asked Wang Guan to send infantry to the first line of Xiangyang and Nanyang to Qin Wang, and then Chen Hongyi led the troops to Qin Wang.

Both sides tacitly agreed, just messengers exchanged. However, Liu Jian, who was in Chen Hongyi's camp, was anxious first.

Liu Jian gathered his guards to go to King Qin, but Chen Hongyi ordered the city gate to be closed and not let one person ride out of the city.

Liu Jian went to see Chen Hongyi alone, and Chen Hongyi was looking at the map and staring at Guanzhong. Liu Jian took a deep breath: "Master, Chang'an has been lost, but we can still keep Jinling!" ”

Chen Hongyi glanced at him: "Jinling can be saved, but this is just your personal loneliness!" Jinling City is still arresting you, and the imperial court may have sent someone to negotiate peace with Zhu Yaoshi a long time ago. I also wonder why not a single edict from King Qin has been sent for months. Didn't you pay attention, Lord Wang? ”

Liu Jian thought for a while: "But after all, the emperor is in trouble, how can we, as courtiers, watch the fire from across the strait?" ”

Chen Hongyi raised his head and sighed, then coughed again: "Ahem, ahem, maybe the emperor doesn't want us to save it!" After all, Zhu Yaoshi's rebels are still the people of Daliang, and the two khanates of Mobei are the real enemies. If we give up Xiangyang and Nanyang, the army of Mobei will drive straight into Jingzhou Kebashu, and when we save Jinling, we will have lost the world. ”

Liu Jian nodded: "But what if Jinling City is broken?" ”

Chen Hongyi stroked his beard: "Pharmacist Zhu has a lot of ambitions, if he breaks Jinling, he will definitely have the ambition to compete for the world." But today, we are already in a race against each other, and he cannot destroy us by his own power. And his main force is out of the nest, the line from Fan Yang to Liyang must be empty, if I am from Mobei, I will definitely fight his idea, and I will not let his family become bigger! ”

Liu Jian sighed: "It's just that the people in Jinling City are really pitiful, and the emperor is going to suffer!" ”

Chen Hongyi smiled: "Why should the prince blame himself, when the day comes, the world will rely on the prince to carry the burden." If the prince has the heart to contribute, he might as well go and defend Xiangyang in person, you and I are each other's horns, and we will resist the attack of the two khanates in the north first! ”

Liu Jian hammered his chest: "That's the only way, I hope that the ancestors and ancestors will bless Your Majesty and Jinling City well!" ”

After Liu Jian arrived in Xiangyang with 10,000 horses, he repaired the city wall day and night, made bows and arrows, rolled wood and stones, and bought grain, grass, salt, iron, and herbs for military needs.

In addition to the group of people from Bashu who came to Xiangyang to sell salt, the rest of the caravan came from Tuyuhun.

One day, when Liu Jianzheng personally led people to the caravan residence in Tuyuhun, he heard someone in the caravan talk about Murong Ling's defeat of the heavy armored cavalry of the Green Flag Khanate in the Battle of Huangshui.

"Our patriarch is strong in martial arts, he is simply not a person, others are half-crossing, he is good, when the enemy has all crossed the river, he will beat the enemy back into the river, kill the two of them and thirteen generals, I don't know how many fell into the river and drowned!"

"This time, thanks to him coming back, otherwise the heavy armored cavalry of the Green Banner Khanate will come to the place where we are flat, then we will be destroyed!"

"No, I see that the chief Li Xiaofei who came back with him, the newly trained ghost sheep cavalry looks strange, although there are only more than a thousand people, but they can definitely beat the heavy armored cavalry!"

"Their bells and whistles haven't been to a fight, it's hard to say!"

Liu Jian was a little excited, but he was not sure, so he asked, "Are the Murong Ling and Li Xiaofei you said from the Central Plains?" ”

"They fled back from Gaochang Kingdom, and when they came back, they brought dozens of Gaochang people with them!" A man who was unloading replied.

"Then Li Xiaofei should be from the Central Plains, and Murong Ling is our patriarch! Why did you come to buy salt and ask about this? A man who looked like a salt seller replied.

Liu Jian can be sure now, except for Li Xiaofei's mouth, no one can fool so many people into running around with him: "I am their friend, if you can see him, can you help me bring them letters?" ”

The salt dealer waved his hand: "Let's go back and go directly to Xihai to dig salt, if we don't go back to Shazhou, you better find someone else."

Liu Jian smiled and took out five gold leaves: "This is what I made up for you, as long as you can help bring the letter, next time you bring the reply, I will double the reward"

The salt dealer immediately piled up smiling faces: "In the next eye, I can bring the letter of the adult even if it is thousands of miles away, and I just happen to go back to Shazhou next month."

Liu Jian handed him the gold leaf: "I want all your salt, you follow my guards back to the house, and wait for me to write a letter outside the house."

These salt sellers were very happy, so they pulled up the car and followed Liu Jian back.

Liu Jian quickly wrote the letter, took ten more gold leaves, and sent thirty people to follow the caravan.

Knowing that Murong Ling broke the heavy armored cavalry of the Green Banner Khanate in Huangshui, Liu Jian immediately sent someone to report to Chen Hongyi. Chen Hongyi immediately wrote a letter to Hu Gaoxiu, explaining that now is a good time for the Black Flag Khanate to annex the north, and it is better to make a truce with the Liang State, if the opportunity is missed, the Liang State will have to fall to Zhu Yaoshi and go north with Zhu Yaoshi.

Liu Jian's letter is very simple, it is to tell Li Xiaofei that Murong Ling is in Xiangyang, his family is safe, and he hopes that the two will come back as soon as possible.

The situation on the western front is very good, but the situation in Jinling City has taken a sharp turn for the worse.

It was not that Zhu Yaoshi attacked, but that the people's army led by the emperor fought with the soldiers of the Qufu of the family.

After Xiao Shan and Liu Qian returned to Jinling, they discussed with everyone to send a part of the gold, silver, cloth and women to show their sincerity.

Naturally, it was impossible for the families to take out the gold and silver and women in their own houses, so they discussed three ways. The first is to assign tasks to officials of all sizes in Jinling, and the most that can be overfulfilled belongs to the officials themselves; The second is the gold and silver cloth that the people in the city share equally among each household, and those who cannot come up with the money will use the women in the family as collateral, and the children under the age of 15 will be given 5 taels, the 15 to 22 years old will be worth 20 taels, the 23 to 35 years old will be given 10 taels, and the 35 years old will be given 1 tael. The third is to let the merchants report, and if it is true that they report that other merchants have gold and silver hidden, they will be rewarded according to the gold and silver found.

As soon as these three measures were implemented, Jinling City suddenly became a hell on earth. In the family, the father and son were still guarding the city walls, and the wife and daughter of the family were captured. The merchants reported each other, and in the end, all the family property was confiscated, and none of the female relatives in the family were spared. There are those who sacrifice their lives and wealth and are killed on the spot, and there are also chaste martyrs who would rather die than give in and hang themselves.

When the first batch of women were taken up the city wall and sent down, a soldier named Su Zhenchang found that his mother, wife and daughter were among them, so he took a knife and was about to go over to save people, but was hacked to death by the soldiers of the Xiao family's mansion.

Then many militias found that their families had been taken away and their belongings had been confiscated, so they drew their swords to defend themselves and save people.

The people who were supposed to defend themselves against foreign enemies fought to the death in their own capitals, and burst out with amazing combat effectiveness. Even the army surrounding the city was frightened, some were still slashing with their heads broken, and some were still running with a few spears stuck in their bodies.

At the behest of the Emperor, the Yellow Guards joined the People's Army against the allied forces of the Great Family.

After three days and three nights of fighting in the city, countless houses were burned down, and more than 30,000 people died. The two sides reached a stalemate, and at this time, Xie Rui suggested that a section of the city wall should be directly chiseled to let Zhu Yaoshi enter the city, and all the families agreed, so they organized the troops to dig the city wall near the east gate.

Emperor Liu Xuan, some people suggested that it was better to bring in Zhu Yaoshi's army to help him fight against the family. Liu Xuan closed his eyes and thought for a while: "I will never compromise with traitors!" Don't compromise, I'm already alone, you still have a wife and daughter's parents, if you compromise, your wife and daughter's parents will be humiliated! ”

The ranks of the people's army shouted long live the emperor, and the shouts shook the sky. Liu Xuan motioned to everyone to calm down: "I expect that they will betray Jinling, and the enemy army will inevitably come in from the east gate or the west gate, and you can take your family to escape from the sewer ditch of the imperial city to the Qinhuai River to take a way out!" ”

Qin Zhong wanted to stop Liu Xuan, but it was too late, Liu Xuan waved his hand: "Fetch the rest of the pills for me!" I stay, you can go with them, don't resist uselessly, escape and find Liu Jian and Chen Hongyi, and let them restore the country of Daliang! ”

Qin Zhong tearfully brought the pill to Liu Xuan, and Liu Xuan ate all the remaining six pills, sweating all over. At this time, it was the eighteenth day of the winter month, and it was almost snowing, and the emperor who had eaten the pill even had hot air.

Liu Xuan waved his hand vigorously at everyone: "Let's go, it's too late!" Come on! ”

More than half of the militia followed Qin Zhong with their families, and thousands of people followed Qin Gou'er to accompany Emperor Liu Xuan.

As night fell, a big hole was finally carved in the wall of the east gate, but Zhu Yaoshi did not enter the city immediately.

Pharmacist Zhu didn't believe what was happening in Jinling City, but the spies who came back from the south gate told him that many people had fled there with their families. The generals hurriedly asked Pharmacist Zhu if he wanted to intercept and kill.

Yao Shi Zhu drew his knife and split the table in front of him in half: "We are also from pariahs, how can we still bully people like us!" Pass my command, enter the city first! ”

Qiu Xingzhi stood up and dissuaded: "Don't enter the city at this time, now most of the city is controlled by the big families, our army rashly enters the city, once they break the contract, we will suffer heavy losses"

Pharmacist Zhu also reacted immediately: "That's right! He Wuji first brought 10,000 people into the city and supervised them to send out the rest of the gold and silver cloths, and as for the women, we will choose them after we enter the city. None of the people sent in the past few days were from a family, and we were deceived! ”

Qiu Xingzhi stopped He Wuji again: "After you enter the city, you must pay tribute to those big officials, tell them that everything we will obey after we enter the city, and three days later, General Zhu invited all their officials to come outside the city to kill the white horse and swear an oath, understand?" ”

He Wuji smiled: "The military advisor has a good idea, I understand it now, you can just wait and see!" ”